Bring Your Video Archives Online With A Media Server

A recent article for WorshipTechDirector.com by Tim Dougherty, Senior Solutions Engineer with Wowza™ Media Systems, offers insight about the value of adding a media server for houses of worship. His counsel also applies to government, media, educational, corporate, and nonprofit organizations that regularly create content from live presentations and events.

Houses of worship that include video production into their ministry will build up a library of media over time. Much of it may be archived on tape, or it may be on hard drives, optical media, etc. Whatever the case, services and special events can often be meaningful and inspiring on an “evergreen” basis, so finding a way to make this content available as well as move it into modern, digital format for preservation is a good choice for a congregation. Dougherty lays out the issues and solutions for bringing archived content into the 21st century digital fold, details the workflow that a media server can provide, and notes some of the technology options available today, including NewTek™/Wowza MediaDS™.

A media server can both stream live services and events and provide previously recorded material as video-on-demand (VOD). We would add that if the demand is relatively modest, then the organization is able to provide this live stream and VOD service with no need for additional monthly fees for a content hosting service. The investment required is just the cost of the media server, plus the high-bandwidth Internet service likely already in place.

This makes past material available as a reference to the minister or spiritual leader. If they want to review a previous topic, they just go to the media server, call it up and watch it, right on their laptop or work system. With an in-house media server, that’s an internal network operation, not at all involving the outside Internet world, as would be the case if the content were placed on a content hosting service. You can reach it even when your outside service is experiencing problems.

MediaDS is a collaborative product that merges NewTek’s industry-leading live production technology with the powerful, proven Wowza streaming software in a one-box content delivery solution. In sum, MediaDS is the link between the Program Output on your production switcher and your target audience, local or global. Learn more here: MediaDS